Telangana HC stays HUDA road construction, bans felling of trees

Hyderabad: Telangana High court on Friday stayed road construction work in the HUDA enclave, Jubilee Hills.

This court passed the order after Nandagiri Hills and HUDA Residents Association filed a petition alleging that Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has encroached its parkland for road widening.

“As it is asserted in the affidavit that 300 trees have been cut for laying the road, it is directed that pending further orders, no trees shall be cut and no road shall be laid in the park area without there being a change in the master plan,” a single-judge bench of Justice Challa Kodanda Ram said in the order.

The matter has been further posted for hearing on May 11.

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On April 27, residents of HUDA Enclave located in Jubilee hills noticed that land allocated for the park is being encroached and over 100 trees are being cut. After which they decided to file a petition with the High court to save their parkland.

“I think the court order was not taken seriously by the officials. In the morning we found that they were continuing the work. We informed the local police. We even went to the site and stopped the construction activities by showing them the stay order. On Monday the defence lawyer has been asked to get a revised master plan if any. We believe that the master plan was last revised in 2013,” said Phani Kodinenni, a resident and treasurer of the HUDA enclave Resident Welfare Association.

Joint Secretary of HUDA Enclave Resident Welfare Association Prasad Kandimalla said all the residents had tried different methods to stop the construction work.

“The work started around April 18. We had complained to the police. Later they started cutting trees and were working at midnight. It took us time to realize that our passive approach is not going to work and in the meantime around 300 trees were cut, so we residents decided to approach the court. On May 6, we filed a petition with the court,” he said.

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Aiswarya Sriram

Aiswarya Sriram is a budding multimedia journalist and is currently working for NewsMeter. A graduate from Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM) Bangalore, Aiswarya has earlier worked with The Logical Indian and has interned with Republic TV. Aiswarya, a Tamilian who was born and brought up in Mumbai, loves to do rural reporting. She has visited Byadgi Taluk of Karnataka, to write about the issues faced by chilli factory workers there, earlier in 2019. A craft enthusiast, Aiswarya also does quilling, painting and glass work. On her off-days, she loves to read crime-thrillers and watch anime. She primarily reports on civic issues, GHMC, human-interesting features, and fact-checking video stories.